Indonesia issued a tsunami warning on Wednesday after a massive and shallow earthquake struck off the west coast of the island of Sumatra, an area hit badly by the 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami.
The warning was issued for West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Aceh after the quake of magnitude 7.9, the National Meteorolgical Agency said.
The shallow quake, which hit southwest of the island of Sumatra, had a depth of 10 kilometers with the epicenter located 808 kilometers southwest of Padang.
Early reports said there were deaths in the quake but officials did not give any numbers. "There are some who have died," said Heronimus Guru, the deputy head of operations with the National Search and Rescue Agency.
USGS originally put the magnitude at 8.2, and then 8.1, before lowering it to 7.9.
Indonesia, especially Aceh, was badly hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
The country straddles the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire", a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
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